Monday, April 18, 2005

Madrigal: O Care, wilt thou despair

I played this piece for two people in my house, and both found it very solemn and said it sounded like they were in church. You can hear the trembling and anguish in their voices. And the dissonance adds to the feeling of tense anguish. It sounds like a choir singing in a Church for a funeral. It is the variation of texture that makes this piece interesting. The voices switch back and forth in texture, with voices being chordal in some spots, contrapuntal in other spots, or both. A subject is often passed back and forth in the voices. This gives the piece a feeling of an inescapable, never ending circle (from despair). In some parts with faster rhythms and brighter mode gives a sense of hope, but it again slips back into the despairing sounds.